http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311644,00.htmlAccording to the raw figures, of the 2,380 members of the military who died during active duty in 1981, 1,524 were killed in accidents, 145 by homicide, 457 by illness and 241 from self-inflicted wounds. That compares with the 1,942 killed in 2005; of that number, 632 died from accidents, 739 from hostile action, 49 from homicide, 281 from illness, 150 from self-inflicted wounds and 72 whose causes of death were still pending. Eleven deaths in ’81 and 19 deaths in ’05 were classified as “undetermined.”
2005 break down:
Hostile Action: 739
Other: 1203
I've also seen similar results listed for the first Gulf War. More service members in the States died during the deployment than died in the MidEast.
A history professor of mine in college also wrote a book on Vietnam, he compared the number of homicides in california to combat deaths in Vietnam. Every year, CA was higher.